Recognition bill passes lower house

Parliament has taken the next steps towards reconciliation on the fifth anniversary of the national apology to the stolen generation.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott put aside politics on Wednesday as the lower house passed legislation that will create an Act of Recognition of indigenous people.

Ms Gillard described the bill as a promise and an act of preparation and anticipation for a referendum.

The legislation, which contains a two-year sunset clause, is intended to pave the way for constitutional change while giving time to build community support.

"I do believe the community is willing to embrace the justice of this campaign because Australians understand that indigenous culture and history are a source of pride for us all," Ms Gillard told parliament.

The prime minister said the current push for change shared the idealism and dreams of the successful 1967 referendum which allowed indigenous people to vote and be counted in the census.

"This year the youngest voters of that referendum are turning 67," she said.

"I hope they will soon be able to return to the ballot box, perhaps with their children and grandchildren, and again make history."

The prime minister paid tribute to her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, for having the courage to apologise to indigenous people on behalf of all Australians.

"We are only able to consider this Act of Recognition and constitutional change because the apology came first," she said.

Mr Abbott noted that while he and Ms Gillard were often antagonists, on this matter they were partners.

He honoured Ms Gillard's work, as well as that of other leaders who had paved the way over the years including Harold Holt, Gough Whitlam, John Howard, Mr Rudd and Brendan Nelson.

"Most of all I honour the millions of indigenous people, living and dead, who have loved this country yet maintained their identity, and who now ask only that their existence be recognised and their contributions be acknowledged," he said.

Australia now had an opportunity to do what should have been done 200 or 100 years ago.

"We need to atone for the omissions and for the hardness of heart of our forebears to enable us all to embrace the future as a united people," he said.

"We shouldn't feel guilty about our past, but we should be determined to rise above that which now makes us embarrassed."

Mr Abbott said Australia was a blessed country with its climate, land, people and institutions rightly making it the envy of the earth.

"Except for one thing - we have never fully made peace with the first Australians.

"This is the stain on our soul that prime minister Keating so movingly evoked at Redfern 21 years ago."

Both Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott acknowledged finding a form of words for the constitution that made everybody happy would be difficult, but not impossible.

"I believe that we are equal to this task of completing our constitution rather than changing it," Mr Abbott said.

Labor MP Graham Perrett took to Twitter to thank the leaders for their moving speeches.

"The best one I've heard from Tony in my five years in the chamber," he tweeted.

Several other MPs used the social media network to say how proud they were to be able to vote for the bill.

Many indigenous people sat in parliament's public galleries to hear the final debate on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Recognition Bill 2013.

They applauded as the legislation passed unanimously.

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